If you're a business owner, you may have noticed something unsettling recently: your website traffic isn't what it used to be. That's because Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing everything you knew about search. Instead of sending people to your site, AI-powered tools like Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity now deliver instant answers. For you, that means fewer website visitors, less control over the customer journey, and increased competition to get noticed.
How does it work? Imagine you run a neighborhood café. Someone searches for “best breakfast near me.” Google serves up your hours, address, and menu highlights, along with a list of your neighborhood competitors’ information. The searcher has found what they needed without ever visiting your site. Or picture managing a retail shop. A shopper searches “holiday gift ideas,” and AI generates a product list from dozens of brands. Despite your SEO investment, customers may never see your promotions, seasonal displays, or brand story.
Welcome to a Brand New Digital Search Era
At INBOUND 2025, HubSpot introduced Loop Marketing, a new framework designed for this new search reality. The Loop replaces the traditional marketing funnel with a continuous cycle built for the AI-driven, zero-click era. But while AI is demanding these changes, it can’t replace the human clarity, creativity, and strategic storytelling that actually build customer trust.
What is the Loop Marketing Cycle?
The Loop is HubSpot's strategy for growth in the AI era. Unlike the traditional funnel, which follows the customer in a straight line from awareness to decision, the Loop is constantly learning and evolving. It combines AI efficiency with human creativity, giving each a role in driving growth.
The four stages of HubSpot’s Loop Marketing Framework are:
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Express: Define your brand identity and voice.
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Tailor: Personalize campaigns with unified data and insights.
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Amplify: Diversify across channels to meet buyers where they are.
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Evolve: Refine strategy in real time based on performance.
Why it Matters Now
The loop model addresses two key marketing challenges for business owners today.
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Audiences engage with brands on multiple digital channels.
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Almost 60% of Google searches end without a click.
These two challenges result in more than lost website traffic. Customers have a choice of dozens of brand touchpoints. A shopper might start with an online search, get an instant AI-generated answer, check reviews on Yelp, watch a TikTok video, browse Instagram Stories, and then walk into your store, all without ever visiting your website.
Even when you rank well in search, customers may never see your full message. Google or another AI engine may display a snippet of your content or information about your business (like your hours or menu), but not the story, offer, or experience you've built around it. As we said, fewer than half of U.S. searches today lead people to a website you own. The rest either stay within Google's ecosystem or end their search on the search page.
That's why simply publishing content or running ads is no longer enough. To stay visible, your marketing has to "loop". In other words, you need to be present and consistent across multiple channels. You must also learn from every customer interaction and adapt your outreach in real time. Otherwise, your brand risks fading into the background while competitors who adopt this approach stay front and center.
Read more about what we’re watching in AI marketing right now here.
Phase 3 and Loop Marketing: Where AI Meets Human Expertise
Phase 3 helps brands embrace the Loop Marketing framework by focusing on what AI can't do: human-centered strategy, clarity, and creativity. Here's how our services align with each stage of the process.
1. Express Your Brand Identity
AI can produce content in seconds, but without a clear brand voice and visual identity, the results will feel generic. Today’s consumer will walk away from a brand they don’t think is authentic or trustworthy. Read more about how critical brand loyalty is to every business here.
Our Brand Strategy & Design team collaborates with clients to develop authentic messaging, values, and visual identity grounded in the foundation of your product, positioning, customer personas, and value proposition. Then, we bring your brand to life through powerful brand messaging, visual assets, brand guidelines, and real-world applications, including websites, signage, and social media templates. We help you create a living, breathing, credible brand that your team can activate across every channel. With Phase 3, you’re not using AI to decide what your brand should sound like. Instead, you’re guided by a strong, human-built foundation.
2. Tailor Campaigns with Data and Insight
True personalization requires more than algorithms that insert first names into messages; it also involves understanding the customer's needs and preferences. That takes deep and unified customer data and the human ability to interpret it with empathy.
The internet is splitting into two layers: quick, AI-generated answers that are free and convenient and deeper, brand-focused experiences that feel more personal and premium. Winning brands will prioritize the second layer. That means building direct connections with your audience, investing in your marketing channels, and producing content that earns trust. Those that do will stand out as credible, memorable, and worth coming back to. Read more about understanding how to use relevant data to optimize digital marketing on the new two-tier internet.
At Phase 3, we combine first-party data with human insight to shape campaigns that feel truly personal. For example, we can help segment retail customers by their purchasing history and develop tailored offers that appear in the channels each customer uses most, whether that's email, SMS, or social media. Or we can examine restaurant customer feedback and order patterns to create targeted promotions. For example, we might suggest offering a loyalty reward on slow weekdays. We could also highlight menu items that match customer preferences.
3. Amplify Across Channels
Customers no longer engage with brands in just one place. They might discover you through Google Search, YouTube, review sites, influencers on TikTok, signage at a local event, or even Google Maps. To stay relevant, you need a unified presence everywhere your audience spends time.
That’s why Phase 3 helps clients diversify their online presence with:
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Powerful digital channels, including websites and social media
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Digital marketing
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PR, including influencer collaborations and media partnerships
A single, data-informed, and integrated strategy drives this digital presence, which we also reflect in traditional and in-person marketing.
For example, a retail client amplifies their seasonal promotion both in-store through signage and events, and online via boosted social media videos, local influencer collaborations, media partnerships, and a Google Business Page promotion.
For a restaurant client, we help them show up where their diners are looking for them online, including delivery apps, review sites, local search, and influencer feeds. At the same time, in-house signage, discount coupons mailed to their customer list, and branded apparel for sale extend their story into the physical customer experience.
Our integrated, multi-channel approach ensures your brand shows up consistently, even if customers never click through to your website.
4. Evolve in Real Time
Marketing can’t wait for quarterly (or whenever you have time) reviews. The Evolve stage is about rapid learning and iteration.
Phase 3 sets KPIs before campaign launch, whether it’s awareness, loyalty, or revenue. We help clients measure both quantitative metrics (traffic, impressions, or conversions) and qualitative ones (sentiment, message pull-through, or brand perception).
Metrics help us refine strategy continuously, track what works, and adapt quickly. This ensures every campaign is smarter than the last, creating compounding ROI. And by focusing on brand-owned, premium experiences, we ensure your business thrives in the spaces where AI alone can't compete.
For detailed information on how we measure success for PR campaigns, please refer to this article. For social media metrics, please read this article. For paid media metrics, check out this article.
Why Human-Led Services Still Matter
HubSpot’s Loop Marketing Framework harnesses AI efficiency and insights, but it only works when guided by human expertise. AI can summarize data, but it can’t feel empathy, anticipate cultural shifts, or craft stories that build lasting trust.
Phase 3 bridges that gap by helping our clients:
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Build a strong brand identity that AI can’t replicate.
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Personalize campaigns with insights rooted in real human behavior.
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Diversify across digital, print, PR, and experiential channels
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Measure impact beyond clicks to track loyalty and growth.
Don't Just Loop. Lead.
HubSpot’s new Loop Marketing framework is a smart response to today’s fragmented, AI-driven customer journey. But the brands that’ll thrive are the ones that pair AI-powered efficiency with human-led clarity and creativity.
At Phase 3, we give you the foundation, tools, and strategies not only to adapt, but to lead.
Ready to see how the Loop fits your growth strategy? Contact us today.